This practical text introduces students to all the principal data collection methods and data analyses used in social psychology. A student-friendly introduction to the data collection methods and data analyses used in social psychology. Describes the principal research methods and shows how they can be applied to particular research questions. Each chapter is written by a psychologist well known for using the method they describe. Methods presented include conducting surveys, constructing questionnaires, facilitating focus groups, running interviews, and using archival recordings. Topics used to illustrate these methods include identity processes, attribution, stereotyping, attitude change, social influence, communication, and group dynamics. Includes step-by-step exercises for students and notes for course leaders.

Offering a hands-on introduction to how psychologists develop and test their research, this book takes students through each step of the process from hypothesis generation to the writing and dissemination of research findings. Students also gain experience in using diverse data collection methods.

This unique book offers a comprehensive introduction to field studies as a research method in social psychology, demonstrating that field studies are an important element of contemporary social psychology, and encourages its usage in a methodologically correct and ethical manner. The authors demonstrate that field studies are an important and a much-needed element of contemporary social psychology and that abandoning this method would be at a great loss for the field. Examining successful examples of field studies, including those by Sherif and Sherif, studies of obedience by Hofling, or the studies of stereotypes of the Chinese by LaPiere, they explore the advantages and limitations of the field study method, whilst offering practical guidance on how it can be used in experiments now and in the future. Covering the history and decline of the field study method, particularly in the wake of the replication crisis, the text argues for the revival the field study method by demonstrating the importance of studying the behaviour of subjects in real life, rather than laboratory conditions. In fact, the results point to certain variables and research phenomena that can only be captured using field studies. In the final section, the authors also explain the methods to follow when conducting field studies, to make sure they are methodologically correct and meet the criteria of contemporary expectations regarding statistical calculations, while also ensuring that they are conducted ethically. This is an essential reading for graduate and undergraduate students and academics in social psychology taking courses on methodology, and researchers looking to use field study methods in their research.

A collection of classroom-tested laboratory and field exercises exploring central problems and topics in social psychology.